Deliberate Practice Is The Power Of State And Mental Toughness

Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan - have thick "MYELIN" for their skill.

A Master Coach, plus DEEP Practice = Talent. The Book, by Daniel Coyle - Talent Code, explains this well. You can also visit their web site is www.thetalentcode.com

Some how innately I got a gift to value deliberate practice from an early age.

And because I have been where you might be right now as an individual or with a team, students, clients, or employees, STUCK - I found value in deliberately knowing more. I did not know until recently what I was really doing until I read Talent Code.

What I didn't know was being talented at being resourceful was all along strengthening my "myelin". Yes myelin, a dielectric material, white matter in the brain that is essential for proper functioning of the nervous system. And if stuck with a coaching client, a student – customer, I have always the willingness to ask the hard deliberate questions.

I'll ask questions like what would Coach Wooden do? What do I need to learn, - where are the best role models for the challenge? Who do I need to learn from? How do I get "us" on the other side of this? Every coach needs a coach. I never forget when I am "the coach" - they are counting on me to teach them, show them, and empower them to be winners! No matter what!

Task specific knowledge makes it desirable to grow. "Your players arrive with skill and motivation", says Wooden. He taught theatrical honesty. "The truth about their performance and moral standards, connect coaches with their students. The two together make a "real" connection."

What is the secret of talent & how do we unlock it?

3 elements work in the brain to form 'MYELIN' - which gives us each as a person vast amounts of speed and accuracy to our movements and thoughts. The sweet spot is when what you know, and doing what you know, come together.

Master coaches make mistakes and turn them into skills. Here some points from The Talent Code

3 Elements to "Myelin" -

1. Down to earth, disciplined, vast deep frame work of knowledge of a desired skill.
2. Deliberate cultivation of the knowledge - steady incremental work for growing skill circuits in the brain -, which, turns into:
3. Core skill circuits that ultimately they/we don't try to control.

Planned talking points, planning the day - made decisions that are kept, for both the team and the individual, by specific words - leaving a stronger clear message and image was Wooden's secret. Target information, task specific knowledge, skill sessions on mental toughness, fired at his players for cultivation. Something I have valued to model in my own planning and practice.

I also think there is a secret to seeing talent and how to unlock it. To make it desirable for someone to grow their skill, they need profound knowledge they can bite into. No fluff, no being let off the hook, just pure honest open communication with you and your client. Having great coaches made the biggest difference in the effectiveness of my talent. Yes, strengthening my myelin has made me a scratch player at what I do and it will do the same for you!

One of the best things a master coach said to me when I was a trainer in training at Life Mastery in Hawaii, with Tony Robbins (www.TonyRobbins.com) in 1994 was " If you want your team to win you can't keep breast feeding them. You need to make them independent thinkers and problem solvers". I took “breast feeding” as code to stop micromanaging, and I did. Talent Code speaks to this.

And that is what I went on to master. Giving them, my teams, students, clients and customers profound knowledge. And when I don’t have the answer, I am honest. And then I go find them. “Get up early – stay up late, do what ever it takes Ida” was and is my mantra still today, something I learned from my coach Tony Robbins. Giving them, clients - those people who employ me to do my job deliberate skills. Giving them the ideas, options and perspectives, the answers. Answers I know they can use, skills they can master to go to mastery of their talent.

How about you? What do you do when you are stuck? Who's your mental conditioning coach?